Toronto
Star
May
8 2004
Downtown
locale, cultural diversity big draws City considered a good investment
destinationCentral locale is a big attraction
When Asad Rahman
moved to Toronto from New York, he thought he would have to rent a
one-bedroom apartment like the one he had in Manhattan. It came as a
pleasant surprise to him that he could afford to buy something bigger
and better.
"Property
values are extremely high in New York," says Rahman, who lived
there for 15 years. "For almost the same price I was able to buy a
three-bedroom condo in downtown Toronto."
The
32-year-oldinvestmentbanker-turned-filmmaker
moved to Toronto in
2002 because he fell in love with this city on a visit in 2001.
"Toronto
is a much more livable city, not crowded or aggressive, while offering
the same cultural diversity of New York — people of all ethnicities,
multicultural food, art and culture and amazing bookstores," says
Rahman, who is originally from Pakistan.
Rahman, who
bought his condo at 1001 Bay St., is one of a growing number of South
Asians who are settling in downtown Toronto and originally hail from the
countries of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
He's part of a
trend among young South Asians, aged 28 to 40, to buy condos downtown to
live in, or to use as short- or long-term investment properties.
Most of these
buyers are educated professionals attracted to the downtown lifestyle.
"Although
condo living is a relatively new concept for South Asians, condo sales
in this sector of the market are much higher than a decade ago,"
says Adnan Bashir, of Remax Professionals in Mississauga.
He heads the
largest team of South Asian real estate agents in the GTA — seven in
total — specializing in residential and commercial properties.
"The
vacancy rate in Toronto rentals was 3 per cent in October 2003 compared
to 0.6 per cent 10 years ago, which shows the rising trend toward buying
over renting," says Bashir, a South Asian native himself.
More than 70
per cent of Bashir's clients are from the South Asian community, which
numbers about 1 million across Canada.
"I
encourage local and overseas South Asians to invest in Canada's vibrant
economy because it gives them a healthy portfolio,"
says Bashir.
Among his
clients are South Asians who have moved to Canada from the United States
in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.
They want to
invest in residential or commercial buildings downtown.
He has three
groups of clients interested in buying condos: "Young professionals
in the IT and finance sectors, new immigrants and investors."
Many of
Bashir's South Asian clients are well-educated business people who have
migrated to Canada from the oil-rich Gulf regions of the Middle East.
They have cash
to invest and see downtown condos as a good long-term bet.
Builders like
Canderel Stoneridge are successfully targeting the South Asian market.
Riz Dhanji,
marketing director of Canderel Stoneridge, knows that "young
upwardly mobile South Asians prefer ownership to renting and place a lot
of importance on real estate, so it makes sense for them to invest in
condos."
Canderel
recently held an open house in partnership with the popular South Asian
Web site, http://www.mybindi.com
to market its DNA project on King St. W. Living in the heart of city was
the attraction for the Someshwar family.
"We
aren't do-it-yourself kind
of people, so having the building maintenance take care of the
upkeep is the way to go for us"
Shylee Someshwar
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